Pizza at Pizzana

Date: October 9 & 24 and November 16, 2017 plus January 20 & February 26, 2018

Cuisine: Neo-Neapolitan pizza

Rating: very good pizza for LA

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Brentwood’s former Osteria Lantini location has been rebooted as Pizzana. Candace and Charles Nelson, the couple who brought you Sprinkles Cupcakes, are opening a pizza restaurant called Pizzana in Brentwood on Friday. Chef Daniele Uditi, who is from Naples, is making Neo-Neapolitan-style pies using 48-hour fermented dough.

Right on San Vicente.

Looks like Osteria L, just repainted and no customer accessible upstairs.

Pizza Carnivoro (10/9/17). San marzano dop, fior di latte, spicy soppressata, fennel sausage, prosciutto cotto, parmigiano, basil. Like a spicy artisan version of the Little Cesars “Meatser Meatser”! But a really nice pie. I like it meated up like this.

Uovo pizza (1/20/18). Fior di latte, cherry tomato, prosciutto crudo, bacon jam, arugula, egg. I really liked this pizza with it’s very bright acidic flavors and sweet/savory bacon jam. Photo isn’t as good though because it was shot on an iPhone instead of the real camera.Pizza Amatriciana (10/24/17). Housemade amatriciana sauce, fior di latte, cripsy prosciutto crudo, red onion, shaved parmigiano. Nice crunchy ham and a good approximation of amatriciana, but I would have maybe liked more of a Guanciale porkier vibe. Pizzana is good, but a little pulled toward mainstream and so they don’t really feature those more Italian funkier flavors — like that pork jowl.Pizza Pignatiello (11/16/17). Neapolitan Sunday Gravy, fior di latte, parmigiano crema, basil. The “gravy” is a tomato based Bolognese like sauce, very rich and savory – as good a beef/pork gravy as you will find. There are chunks of short rib here too and two types of cheese to brighten it up. Very good pizza, less acid than the other ones I had here, but a good hearty rich beefy taste. Very much like some kind of beef cannel or something in Southern Italy.

Vanilla gelato and chocolate sauce.

Overall, I need to go back. I liked the dough, very stiff and chewy. I liked that there are a lot of different pies. I have to try more to get a real verdict. Certainly now there with Milo and Olive as the best dedicated westside pizza joints.

After four visits I like the pizza a lot. Good variety and great dough. Service can be a little dicier. On visit four it took 15 minutes for anyone to come to our table (and a good 5 after I asked) and then several tables that sat long after us got their food first. It was quite noticeable (other tables were sympathetic) and I mentioned it and the server just said sorry — she should have comped the ice cream or something. Still, if the food is good I’ll keep going back.